Calvin Tomkins

Calvin Tomkins (* December 17, 1925 in Orange, New Jersey ) is an American writer and art critic for the magazine The New Yorker. Particularly well known were his publications on Marcel Duchamp.

Life and work

After graduation at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Tomkins studied until 1948 at Princeton University. He became a journalist and worked from 1953 to 1957 for Radio Free Europe and News for week by 1957 until 1961.

Tomkins ' first post for The New Yorker was published in 1958. In 1960, he received a permanent position. The first publication in the field of art history for the magazine appeared in 1962 on Jean Tinguely. In the 1960s and 1970s, he described the New York art scene by reporting on the development of art movements such as Pop Art, Land Art, Minimalism, over video art, happenings and installations. From 1980 to 1986 he was the official art critic of the magazine and his contributions published almost weekly. From 1986 Tomkins sat on free base his work for The New Yorker continued. His last article appeared in 2007.

Tomkins interviewed and wrote about the most important artists of the 20th century, such as about Marcel Duchamp, whom he had in 1959 met on the occasion of an interview for Newsweek, about John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Julia Child, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leo Castelli, Frank Stella, Christo and Jeanne- Claude, Damien Hirst, Richard Serra, Matthew Barney and Jasper Johns. 2013, the book was Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon interviews published.

Tomkins first wife was Grace Lloyd Tomkins, with whom he has three children. In the second and third marriage he was with Judy Tomkins and Susan Cheever married (daughter of John Cheever, a child). His fourth and current wife is Dodie Kazanjian, editor at Vogue and director of Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Publications (selection)

  • Intermission: A Novel, Viking Press, New York 1951
  • The Lewis and Clark Trail. Harper & Row, New York 1965
  • The World of Marcel Duchamp, Time Inc., New York 1966
  • Eric Hoffer: An American Odyssey. Dutton, New York 1969
  • Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Dutton, New York 1970
  • With Judy Tomkins, The Other Hampton. Grossman Viking, New York 1974
  • The Scene: Reports on Post-Modern Art Viking Press, New York 1976, ISBN 0-670-62035-1
  • With Bob Adelman: Roy Lichtenstein: Mural with Blue Brushstroke. Abrams, New York 1987
  • Post -to Neo -: The Art World of the 1980s. Henry Holt, New York 1988; according to articles published in The New Yorker between 1980 and 1986
  • Duchamp: A Biography. Henry Holt, New York 1996 German: Marcel Duchamp. A Biography. Hanser, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-446-20110-6
Orange (New Jersey) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Vogue (magazine) Alexander Liberman Integrated Authority File
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